Every musician dreams of the day when he can stand up on stage with a band and spontaneously play a beautiful solo without having first planned or rehearsed that solo. However, in order to execute a solo in this way it is necessary to predict which scale is going to fit the chord progression which is used in the song. It is also necessary to know where to find the correct scale quickly on your guitar fingerboard or keyboard. This is not as easy as one may think, especially if the song in question contains several chords uncommon to the key in which one is playing. What this means is that the set of scale notes necessary to form your solo will change throughout the song.
The correct scale to play at any given time depends on the chord harmony which is occurring at that time. In some songs the necessary scale may change several times within the same song. How can we know which scale is correct at any given time? Well, to answer this question in musical terms, it would be necessary to delve very deeply into several aspects of music theory and unless one already has a powerful background in scale theory as well as chord theory (harmony), the explanation would probably not be understood. Even musicians with an extensive education in music find that there is a great deal of memorization involved in order to quickly recall the correct scale for all musical situations. Becoming competent at this technique not only requires a great deal of knowledge but also a great deal of one's valuable time must be spent memorizing rules and principles. Of background interest, describing and illustrating display devices for musical instruments, there has been located Funaki U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,918, Hesnan U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,977, Mendiola, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,029, Bezeau, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,383 and Minamitaka U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,544. Most interestingly, is U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,473 to Laflamme, issued Nov. 1, 1983.
Laflamme discloses a hand held calculator displaying pictures of chords. This isolated fragment of music knowledge cannot tell the musician what chord to play in any given musical situation. It is up to the musician, through intensive study, to figure out for himself what to do with these chords after he sees the picture on the display. There is little incentive to invest in such an electronic device when a five dollar book of music chords will show the same information. Laflamme does not offer any features regarding how to play any of the possible different scales. By far the greatest shortcoming of Laflamme's device is its failure to unify keys, chords and their related scales The concept of unifying keys, chords and their related scales in encompassed by the name "tonality."
Laflamme's use of push buttons requires most of the available area on his faceplate. This restricts the size of his LED display. In the case of Laflamme's limited device this is adequate because his small, four fret display is intended for displaying chords only.
Thus, the invention herein related to an improved hand held calculator which provides for compact use of dial selectors allowing for chord shapes and scale patterns to be clearly shown across a full twelve frets.